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Free Enterprise Experience Unit

Main Core Tie

FCS Exploration
Strand 4 (Note: Start of FCS explorations part B) Standard 2

Time Frame

3 class periods of 60 minutes each

Authors

Pamela Rock
Laura Schiers

Summary

This unit will provide activities for students to complete the Free Enterprise experience.


Materials

  • Free Enterprise PowerPoint
  • Free Enterprise Worksheet
  • The Cookie Business Worksheet
  • Company Plan Worksheet
  • Poster Paper or Board
  • Markers
  • Tickets
  • Baggies Labeled with Kitchen Numbers and Class Periods


Student Prior Knowledge

Pre-Assessment of what Students Know:

  • What is it called if your business is making money? (Profit)
  • What is it called if your business is losing money? (Loss)
  • What are the electricity, shipping and packaging costs called? (Expenses)


Instructional Procedures

Day 1:

Intro:
    Over the next few days, we will talk about what it takes to run a business. Then, you will plan a business for your kitchen unit.
Terms:
    Terms related to running a business are explained with a PowerPoint and the students complete the Free Enterprise Worksheet along with it. Give examples of personal experiences you know of or have heard of about small businesses.

Cookie Business:
    Read through the Cookie Business worksheet and go through the questions with the class. Have them fill out the worksheet. Let them do the weekly plan and then discuss what they wrote. The last part they do on their own. They did make a profit, but it wasn't much. Ask for ways they could improve their business and if possible explain how national companies do this.

Plan Their Business:
    Hand out one copy of the Company Plan Worksheet per kitchen unit. The students will plan out a day to sell a food product. Let them choose what they want to make. Be specific about the ingredients the teacher will provide and explain that any other ingredients need to be provided by the members of the kitchen lab. For example, if they decide to make pizza, they need to bring their own cheese, pepperoni and pizza sauce.

    On the day that they sell, give them tickets. (Zurcher's is one place to buy these tickets.) It is easier to buy different colored tickets for each class period. The students get tickets according to their grade that day. It is also a great way to encourage them to get their grades up so they can get more tickets.

    Be sure and go through the ingredients they have listed and clarify what you will provide and what they will provide. Also remind them to bring their own plates, cups, utensils and napkins.

Day 2:

Make Business Advertisements:
    Give each kitchen unit a poster. (You can use an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of white card stock and have the students fold it into a tent.) Instruct the students to make a poster on the paper with the name of the food and how many tickets it will cost.

    Give the students a baggie with their kitchen number and class period on it to put the tickets they receive in it. They hand the baggie of tickets to the teacher before leaving.

    Allow the students the first half of the class to prepare their food. At the appointed time, they can start selling to each other. You can also send out an email to the faculty to come down and buy.

Day 3:

Free Enterprise Report:
    Have the students fill out the Free Enterprise Report and report to them how many tickets their kitchen made. The assignment is worth 100 points and the kitchen with the most tickets gets 100 points. The kitchen that makes the next highest amount of tickets will well 95 point, and so on. Discuss how in the real world, you may have the best recipes or best ideas for a restaurant, but it doesn't always work out and you may lose. That's Free Enterprise!


Extensions

  • The Cadbury Family: Sweet Smell of Success DVD from Biography Channel is a great resource to show how a business evolves.
  • Bizworld


Created: 04/24/2011
Updated: 02/05/2018
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